Not many people pay attention to commercials on TV anymore, mostly because we’re either streaming content with limited to no commercials, or we’re just watching stuff on our DVR that just allows us to fast forward through them. But while watching the Golden Globes live this past weekend, a recent ad from AT&T caught my eyes (actually, my ears first) because it mashed up a ton of movies and TV shows.

In a new AT&T advertisement promoting the ability to watch a plethora of movies and TV shows on demand from your phone, you’ll find references to Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones, Knight Rider, Cheers, Rocky, Breaking Bad, Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Sesame Street and more.

Kagan McLeod created this illustration featuring the mant actors and actresses from the past years of multi-camera sitcom history. How many of the 50 characters do you reccognize? Answer key on the National Post.

Netflix is getting a lot of competition of late, whether from Hulu‘s huge deal with Criterion or Amazon‘s new streaming service through Amazon Prime and a planned streaming offering from Redbox. At the same time, some content owners are getting more prickly when it comes to negotiating deals to stream content online. In short, the digital age of distribution is taking a couple steps forward and everyone wants their share.

So every new content deal is a good thing for any given company on the playing field. That said, here’s a new Netflix deal that might not do huge numbers, but could be a boon for fans: the company has signed a new two-year non-exclusive deal with CBS to stream the company’s library content, including The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks and the various incarnations of Star Trek. Read More »